The present disclosure relates to a liquid medicine filling device and a liquid medicine filling method for filling a liquid medicine administration device including a liquid medicine storage unit with a liquid medicine.
In recent years, a treatment method for continually administering a liquid medicine to a patient's body by subcutaneous injection, intravenous injection, or the like has been performed. For example, as a treatment method for diabetes patients, a treatment for continually injecting a low amount of insulin into the patient's body is performed. In this treatment method, a portable liquid medicine administration device (e.g., a so-called insulin pump), which may be fixed to the patient's body or clothes to be carried, is used to administer a liquid medicine (e.g., insulin) to the patient throughout the day.
When the liquid medicine administration device is provided to a user, a liquid medicine storage unit in which the liquid medicine is stored is not filled with the liquid medicine in advance. Therefore, when using the liquid medicine administration device, the user needs to perform an operation to fill the liquid medicine storage unit of the liquid medicine administration device with the liquid medicine from a liquid medicine container (for example, a vial) in which the liquid medicine is separately stored.
Also, in order to reduce a thickness of the liquid medicine administration device, it is proposed to form the liquid medicine storage unit of a flexible film. EP Patent No. 2258333 discloses a technology for filling such a liquid medicine storage unit with liquid medicine. In EP Patent No. 2258333, the liquid medicine storage unit is filled with the liquid medicine by using two syringes and a plurality of valves, and then, air in the liquid medicine storage unit is removed.